


Don’t play with dangerous magic kids

by WolfFromMars



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Beauty and the Beast AU, F/M, alternative universe, general magic beings, magic!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 08:50:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13143174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfFromMars/pseuds/WolfFromMars
Summary: Clara founds an old mansion, running from her past. It happens to be full of fantastic creatures. There’s one that will fascinate her.





	Don’t play with dangerous magic kids

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TaleasOldasTimeandSpace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaleasOldasTimeandSpace/gifts).



> This si my Whouffaldi Secret Santa gift to @taleasoldandtime-andspace in Tumblr! A bit late in my time zone but heyyy  
> Hope you like your Beauty and the Beast AU! Got a bit out of hand I’ll be honest

_I was the wolf who lived in the forests, and I failed._  
_I was the wood who held his home together, and I failed._  
_I was the constant snark and bite in his head, and I failed._  
_I was the fire running through his veins, and I failed._  
_I was the guardian and protector, and I failed._  
***  
“Hello?”  
The voice of the brunette reverberated on the old wooden walls of the mansion. There was no answer as she stepped in.  
“Hi, it’s um. Snowing. Outside. Thought I’d pop in for a while until... I’m talking to myself aren’t I.”  
The woman closed the door behind her, removing her clothes and took a glance at the hallway she had invited herself in. It didn’t look cozy but it didn’t look abandoned either. There was even a fire burning in the fireplace, quietly consuming a pile of wood.  
Now that she was paying attention to it, the fire seemed not quiet nor discreet, that she could have missed it when she came in. It was full of life and character, somehow it made her think of... An Scottish accent.  
“Oi!”  
“Holy sh- shoe. Dear goodness you scared me!”  
It wasn’t the fire who had spoken (thank the stars, but why would a fire talk anyway?), but a ginger woman who had appeared out of nowhere from her left.  
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in! But take a seat, there’s a bloody blizzard going on out there, isn’t in?” The brunette found herself being carried towards one of the sofas she hadn’t noticed when she came in and being sat down. “Name’s Donna by the way. Yours?”  
“Clara,” she felt compelled to answer. Well, she barged in her house after all, there was no harm in sharing her name.  
“Oh, it’s lovely. I’ll go make some tea, you sit there and get comfy. Get a bit closer to the fire, don’t worry I’m sure she’ll like you!”  
And she was gone. She didn’t waste time did she.  
Clara didn’t understand that part about someone liking her but hey, as long as it wasn’t the opposite...  
In the renewed silence, she tried to listen to the fire burning, that had been so captivating moments ago. But she couldn’t hear it anymore.  
Instead, she perceived a light rumble, like a growl, coming from the depths of the mansion, from upstairs...  
She felt a chill going up her spine. A different woman would have taken this as a sign to leave this cursed house and never look back, snow be damned.  
Clara, instead, sat up, rousing the slightest bit from her sofa, with a sparkle in her eyes.  
Donna smiled, hidden in the shadow and the fire sizzled again. Maybe they could afford to have hope.  
As they knew she would, Clara finally rose from her seat, taking the stairs, with determination written all over her face, like she was being pulled in by a force far stronger than reason or logic.  
After her, there were two voices.  
“So is this her? Is she the one who’s gonna save us?”  
“Rory wouldn’t have let her through otherwise. Have a bit of faith in that poor husband of yours!”  
But she didn’t hear them. Or she just couldn’t have cared.  
—  
Upstairs, ~~the man,~~ the beast paced in his bedroom. He was trying to have a civil conversation with his house, Martha, he remembered. Her name was Martha. Names were important, he thought to himself. He should remember their names even if he couldn’t remember his.  
Martha was telling him something about someone new, but he hadn’t met someone new since the fire and the centurion.  
...  
Amy and Rory! They were Amy and Rory! The Doctor Stupid, wasn’t he.  
And he had been so lonely since them. Not like they left, of course, no one ever left. Donna was the more present, having corporeal form and using it to clean up his messes and make sure he heard all about it.  
But he had refused to see someone new. He was sick. Sick of cursing those around him to share eternity with him just because they felt sorry for him.  
They’ll tell him it was because they cared about him and loved him and-  
Such fancy words to say the same thing.  
And he should know! He used to love to use long fancy words...  
That’s why, when the door to his bedroom opened, revealing a young petite woman, he growled, stronger than ever.  
He crouched to the floor, baring his teeth at the woman who stood at his door.  
She stood there, not moving an inch, and pinning him with those rich brown eyes.  
They were quite beautiful, if he was fair.  
She was quite beautiful, if he was honest.  
He could love her like he hadn’t loved none of his companion in a very long time...  
So he roared. And if she had stood there a second longer, he would have lounged at her.  
Luckily for him, she run.  
—  
The stairs seemed to fly by under her feet as Clara made her way down.  
“Oh darling, leaving so soon? Won’t you stay for tea?!”  
Clara didn’t bother to answer or to look back. She reached for the door and bursted out.  
It was still snowing outside. The forest around the house could only do so much to cover her from the storm.  
She wanted to run, scared as she was for her life, but she felt lost.  
She couldn’t go anywhere. She couldn’t go back home. Not to that full of memories of people who were no longer by her side.  
She was stranded here, with that kind woman and the very very dangerous animal upstair.  
It was bigger than a bear, and not brown or white, but a combination of grey and white. Fur covered him completely though, with piercing blue eyes under some prominent eyebrows.  
What was she thinking?! Why was she thinking about eyebrows in a moment like this?! What was wrong with her!?  
She let herself fall to the ground, feeling a sob coming up her throat. She could have sweared that the house was leaning towards her, trying to serve as a support.  
She was completely insane.  
“Clara,” came a voice from above. She looked up. Donna had opened the door again.  
“Darling. Please come in. We’re terribly sorry. He doesn’t usually behave like that.”  
As she wouldn’t rise to her feet, Donna decided to come down, with a blanket in her arms, wrapping her with it.  
“I will have strong words with him, I can assure you.”  
There was silence then, as Donna glared to the inside of the house, to his invisible host.  
Clara released a shaky breath she didn’t she had been holding.  
“He... He looked scared,” Donna turned her attention to her, a puzzled look in her eyes, “it’s stupid, isn’t it? There’s this part of me telling me I should be scared and running for my life but... But he looked so _scared_.”  
Donna smiled. Rory had chosen wisely.  
**  
Days carried on slowly. The name of the beast was the Doctor, Clara learned. Doctor who, she had asked then. Donna shared a smile with someone Clara couldn’t see.  
It was a curse, she learned afterwards. That affected him and everyone who befriended him.  
She told herself she wasn’t going to befriend him anyway, so she was safe.  
She didn’t believe it, even back then.  
Just after comforting her, Donna had gone upstairs to scold at that white wolf-like creature like she would scold at one of her students back home.  
She missed them, sometimes. But like everything she had left behind, they were only ghosts.  
The Doctor didn’t try to scare her again though, so whatever Donna said to him, worked.  
As she got used to living in the mansion, she only saw him as a shadow, in the corner of her eye, fleeing the room she entered into. 

(She didn’t admit it to herself, but that made her feel powerful)  
She even got to know his former “companions”, as they called themselves. Apparently Rory was the one who had guided her to their house, when she was lost in his forest.  
Amy was the life and the fire in every room. They were married. It was pretty cute.  
Martha was the house itself, a fundamental part that kept the structure together. She was the only one persistent enough to do that, Donna said.  
And then, after many weeks living in the mansion, she finally met Rose.  
She didn’t like to be hold up in the house, so it was in the snowed plains next to it, as Clara was picking up wood, when she saw her.  
She had never seen a wolf before.  
They didn’t speak, of course. But as Clara raised her head and looked straight into the wolf’s eyes, she felt a chill going down her spine.  
Before Rose vanished into the woods.  
Donna told her later she had her approval.  
For what, she wasn’t sure what.  
Back to the Doctor and once she was his companions friendship (kind of), she got tired of his bullshit eventually.  
The confrontation happened in a room with only one door, in which she stood proudly when he tried to pass through in all her 5’2” glory.  
—  
He growled at her but he had felt the storm brewing and there was no getting out this time.  
“Oh drop it. I refuse to believe we have a giant grey dog living with us.”  
Living with us, she had said. Like she _lived_ here. Which she technically did, now.  
Why did he ever choose to willingly take in a companion he didn’t know.  
(He did. He still loved every single one of them. And he felt sorry for them.)  
He groaned, recoiling a little from the door, seeing as she wasn’t moving.  
“I’m not scared of you, you know. So you stop this whole mysterious frightening act you have going on.”  
He raised, standing on his back... Legs. On his legs. He could see her face slightly twitch at his full height. She was just so tiny.  
He proceeded to examine her with his very crossed eyebrows. Donna would have called this “brooding”. He disagreed, of course.  
“So, can you speak? Donna speaks of you as you’re at the same time the most brilliant and daft man she’s ever met. I don’t think she’ll think that of you if you can’t say a word.”  
His eyebrows furrowed further. Donna talked about him? Why?  
She still wasn’t budging. So she was waiting for a reply.  
It’s not like he had used his voice recently. When he finally spoke, it came off rough and deeper than usual.  
“Maybe so.”  
Ah, a chill. That was more up his alley. Maybe she’ll get to her senses and run far far away from him.  
She was definitely bonkers if she hadn’t run away by now though.  
“Well! He speaks!”  
“You’re still in the way”  
“Oh, am I? I haven’t noticed”  
He growled again, stopped looking at her and moving to another part of the very tiny room.  
Very tiny room for a very tiny companion.  
No, he was not thinking about her as a companion. He refused.  
“Why are you so grumpy anyway? I’m not going anywhere and if it’s about that shtick about cursing people who befriend you, you’re not really helping anyone.”  
He fixed her attention on her again. She had gotten closer.  
“You being grumpy isn’t going to help Donna and rest, is it? You’re just... Making whatever this is, worst”  
“Maybe it’s part of the curse. Besides their original punishment, they have to stand me forever”  
“Nah that’s not it,” there was a faint of a smirk in her lips. He found he liked it that face. Even if it was too round “they would have left by now. I’m pretty sure they can. Specially Rose. She doesn’t even live here-“  
She stopped when she noticed his flinch. Of course she had met her.  
“Uh. Touched a nerve there?”  
“Probably, ask Donna, she’s the professional”  
“Oh you do have a mouth on you, don’t you?” He looked at her.  
“So first you want me to talk and now you want me to shut up? That’s nonsense”  
“I didn’t say that. It just makes me wonder why don’t you talk more. You seem to like the sound of your voice.”  
Oh, she was _smart_. He liked that too.  
...  
Maybe he liked it a bit way too much.  
She got closer again. The way out was relatively free. He could make a run for it.  
But she was staring at him with those deep brown eyes he had noticed the first time he had seen her. He felt strangely small when she was looking at him like that, even though he was towering over her, becoming more obvious the closer she got.  
“Who cursed you, anyway. What did you even _do_? I asked Donna but apparently there’s a blank there. Like you’ve always been like this.”  
Oh, she’s clever. She’s so damn clever. Dangerously so.  
She raised her hand towards him. He felt as if she touched him, he’d feel a sudden surge of electricity going through him.  
Then he’d become a big puff of hair. Clara would probably laugh.  
Wait.  
When had he learned her name?  
—  
It all seemed to be going smoothly, whatever she was doing. She wasn’t really sure. The only thing she had wanted was for him to act like a civilized person round her.  
But she had been taken away by some kind of... Urge. To be close to him.  
Maybe it was the curse?  
She didn’t care, as she raised her hand towards him. He must be so soft, she thought. She thought of grey curls for some reason, instead of regular fur.  
Something crossed the Doctor’s mind, because he looked at her for a moment. Then at her hand. He had beautiful eyes, the part of him that looked more human than beast.  
He bolted to the door and got himself lost in the mansion.  
**  
“I mean! What was all that about!”  
“Your guess is as good as mine love”  
“He just! Ugh!”  
Donna was doing her hair at the moment. Clara had tried to discourage her, saying she was no lady and she didn’t have to serve her.  
Donna have laughed then. She did these things because she liked it. That her usual outfit was the one of a maid was only a bizarre coincidence.  
“Besides,” she had told her, “heaven knows that long streak of nothing barely eats and gives me trouble. So I may as well spend my afterlife taking care of someone.”  
“Oh, I’m...” Clara went rigid suddendly, “I’m so sorry”  
“Oh it’s alright sweetheart. Everyone else in this house is a weirdo so couldn’t be left out, now could I?”  
One of Donna’s favourite ways to past the time was complain about the Doctor. And given their last interaction, Clara was in the mood too.  
“I just. I don’t get where did I go wrong”  
“Oh, darling. They’re men. And him, in all his wonders, is one of the most complicated ones.”  
“You’re always talking about all these things he’s done,” Clara was looking somewhere beyond the room, as if she could see through the wall and spy the man that wouldn’t leave her mind lately. “So what happened?”  
Donna’s hands stopped braiding her hair as she took a moment to think. The silence was heavy with unspoken secrets. Why were they even secrets in the first place?  
“That’s just... It’s just a long story. Sorry love.”  
“I don’t get why can’t you just tell me! I tried to ask him and he just... Absconded!”  
Donna muttered something that sounded like “English teacher” under her breath. Clara gave her a pointed look but then smiled. She liked this woman very much.  
“Anyway. Darling. If there’s something I’ve learned is that, if you want something, you have to chase it.”  
And so she did.  
—  
“Stop following me around”  
“It’s not like there’s much else to do in this godforsaken mansion!”  
“Why don’t you go bother... Donna. She loves that. Or Rory. People like talking with Rory. Probably boosts their confidence.”  
“That’s mean!”  
“He never is so someone has to!”  
Banter. This was banter. He was sure of it. And he was totally against banter.  
He knew something was wrong with the way he was talking with this Clara woman. Overly familiar, like two old friends catching up. He hated it. ~~He loved it.~~  
”You need someone to keep you in line. I’m taking the job.”  
“You what?”  
“Yeah, I just decided. I’m you carer from now on.”  
_She cares so I don’t have to._  
He felt a chill go down his spine at the unsaid words, sitting on his tongue, way too familiar to be new to him.  
“Doctor?” She caught up while he was distracted. Since the ‘almost incident’, he had kept her at arms-length, just in case.  
Now, he was too distracted.  
She touched his arm.  
And just like that, the neural blocker fell apart.  
—  
Once upon a time, there was a powerful a witch. All her doings were good and kind and the towns she visited thanked her.  
She met a man. An impossible man who completed her in every way, who was as clever as she was and melted her heart with his kindness.  
They loved each other in every way and for a brief period of time, they were happy, happier than they’ve ever been apart.  
But nothing can last for long.  
Clara realised her companion was mortal.  
_“You look old”_  
“We look the same age!”  
“You seem tired”  
“I feel fine!”  
And she couldn’t let that stand.  
She visited his mansion, as all his friends were gathered. His former lover, the married couple, the housekeeper and his oldest friend.  
She tried to pour her magic into him, to turn him into a being just like her.  
It went terribly wrong.  
And instead, she turned him into a beast.  
The magic she had tried to tame was so powerful that it also affected the rest of them, not only blocking their memories, but also turning them in different beings.  
Their minds filled the blank like dreams trick you into thinking everything you’re experimenting is real.  
And the spell also send Clara away.  
Without a single idea that she had once being a powerful witch.  
And she had loved. And she had lost a loved one.  
That’s when she fled what she believed to be her hometown.  
And unknowingly, she ended up at her true love’s doorstep.  
—  
_“Clara. My Clara.”_  
“My Doctor.”  
—  
She managed to turn them all back, eventually.  
The spell, in the end, did work. Both of them were functionally immortal, as long as they didn’t left the enchanted mansion.  
But it’s not like they were planning to go anywhere.


End file.
